Episode description

Step inside LLNL’s National Ignition Facility, home to the world’s largest and most powerful laser. It’s a building as vast as three football fields, with beams amplified a million times in strength, all focused on a tiny target no bigger than a centimeter. The scale is immense, but the goal is even bigger: to create the most extreme conditions in the universe and unlock a revolutionary energy source.

But what does it really take to reach fusion ignition?

Join us as we explore the science, the stakes, and the people behind this incredible pursuit. Tune in to discover how a fleeting moment of triumph could change the future of energy forever.

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Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series. 

Executive Produced and Written by Lacey Peace. 

Sound Design, Music Edit and Mix by Daniel Brunelle. 

Story Editing by Daniel Brunelle. 

Audio Engineering and Editing by Matthew Powell. 

Narrated by Matthew Powell. 

Video Production by Levi Hanusch. 

Guests featured in this episode (in order of appearance): 

• Kim Budil, Director of LLNL
• Jean-Michel Di Nicola, Program Co-Director for Laser Science and System Engineering at LLNL
• Michael Stadermann, Program Manager for Target Fabrication at LLNL
•  Richard Town, Associate Program Director for Inertial Confinement Fusion Science at LLNL

Brought to you in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.